Data centre wins Sustainability and Green IT award

The Melbourne Water Data Centre has been awarded the Victorian iAward for Sustainability and Green IT at the recent 2012 iAwards. 

The facility has been designed using an indirect free cooling solution that aims to reduce overall energy consumption used for cooling.

The engineering consultancy Norman Disney & Young (NDY) was appointed by Melbourne Water as the lead consultant to deliver the design for the new $7m data centre. “Through the design development of the air cooling solution utilising free cooling and rack air containment technologies, NDY have been able to deliver an approximate 40% reduction in energy consumption for the operation of the cooling system compared to the existing facility. This equates to a saving for Melbourne Water of over $40,000 or 600 tons of CO₂ per annum for the life of the facility and further savings will result as Melbourne Water’s IT system grows,” said NDY Senior Associate & Project Coordinator John Boatto.

“With Melbourne Water managing 157,000 hectares of catchments in the Yarra Ranges and over 8400 kilometres of rivers and creeks, they were keen to ensure the new data centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs is equipped to meet current demands but also has contingencies for expansion and future growth,” says Boatto.

NDY worked with Melbourne Water to ensure the facility also incorporated: increased reliability, maintainability, operational safety, use of underutilised existing assets and planned expansion via adaptable services solutions.

NDY was appointed to provide a range of services including electrical, mechanical, fire, hydraulics and communications. As the lead consultant, NDY also managed the delivery of the architectural, structural and civil services for this project.

The company was also appointed to design the communications infrastructure for the data centre and provided input to the IT infrastructure layout and planning.

“The iAward for Sustainability and Green IT acknowledges a data centre that satisfies the sustainability requirements of Melbourne Water whilst delivering a world-class IT infrastructure with a significantly reduced environmental footprint.” As winners of the Victorian State Award the project is now a finalist in the National Awards being held in August.